UNCW hoops looks to improve after Rendleman

UNC-Wilmington has lots of questions in its basketball future as former East Lincoln standout Keith Rendleman leaves the program.

Halifax Media Group

By Brian Mull/Halifax Media Group

Published: Thursday, March 7, 2013 at 12:47 PM.

Together almost every day since September, members of the UNCW men’s basketball program headed their own way after the team returned home from Philadelphia on this past Sunday.

Most players went home to see their families. Some were off to spring break destinations. Coach Buzz Peterson and his assistants headed out recruiting, searching for someone, somewhere, who can help his team win more games than it loses next season.

The last, and most painful, bite from the Seahawks’ postseason ban occurs Saturday, when seven CAA teams begin fighting for the championship. It’s the most wide-open tournament in recent history. Despite a historically bad year for the conference, one of those teams will emerge, climb the ladder and clip the nets Monday night to secure one of 68 precious spots in the NCAA Tournament field.

UNCW can only watch the bracket unfold, and point to next year yet again.

Déjà vu all over again

Around this time last year, the Seahawks learned they had a strange season ahead, one without a single tournament game. Three Seahawks left the program, and Peterson felt good about the ones who returned. Throughout the preseason he described this team as mature and cohesive.

Improvement was the only reasonable expectation. But in a 10-20 season, there wasn’t any tangible improvement. The Seahawks lost 8 of their last 10 games and, while four starters return next season, none scare opposing coaches.

Those dim fortunes leave Peterson’s future with the program unclear, although he has three years remaining on a contract that pays him $430,000 annually.

“The chancellor and I are thoroughly evaluating every phase of the men’s basketball program right now,” athletic director Jimmy Bass said Tuesday. “We will proceed thoroughly and quickly.”

Those decisions won’t be made before next week.

In the meantime, Peterson knows his backcourt needs a boost. He has two scholarships available and, in a college basketball world driven by guards, must find players who can handle the ball, score and defend consistently against CAA competition.

“When I look at this league and basketball period,” Peterson said Saturday night, “we need to get somebody who can create for himself and others on our team.”

If those comments sound familiar, it’s because they are.

Peterson thought he upgraded his backcourt last offseason with junior college transfer Chris Dixon and graduate student Tyree Graham. Dixon played well most of the conference season, but was inconsistent and ended the season with a 1-for-12 clunker in the 16-point loss at Drexel. Graham, his body ravaged by injuries, never got into adequate physical condition to help the Seahawks, and did not play in the last 10 games.

Peterson emphasized defense this season. The defense got worse. UNCW plummeted to 296th nationally in adjusted efficiency. By comparison, three of Brad Brownell’s four UNCW teams finished top 50 in that category. In CAA games, the Seahawks ranked last in scoring defense (72.2 points per game), field goal percentage defense (45.7) and next-to-last in points allowed per possession (1.09).

If Peterson remains as coach, he must borrow a page from college football coaches and hire a defensive coordinator, someone who can implement the correct schemes and drill in the toughness required to execute them.

Instilling that toughness is the last piece. The UNCW roster is filled with pleasant young men, the type you want your daughter to date or marry. But what’s missing is the insatiable thirst to win, the run-through-a-brick-wall-mentality seen this season at Trask Coliseum from Towson’s Jerrelle Benimon or James Madison’s Devon Moore.

If basketball is a player’s best avenue to a better life, he’s apt to treat each possession accordingly, as if his future depends on it.

After last season, Peterson mentioned wanting to put his his players through military-style training, something that’s become an integral part of offseason conditioning regimes at places like VCU and Northeastern. He wanted the Seahawks m to push themselves under the hot sun in an open field, learn the value of teamwork and discover just how far they could go when their tank was on empty.

It never came to fruition. And the Seahawks stayed soft.

How to leave the past

So, after losing at least 18 games in six of the last seven seasons, the program is now planted in the wasteland of college basketball, buried near the bottom of all the rankings, floundering without a concrete identity or style of play.

At home, buoyed by their home crowd, the Seahawks can surprise regular-season champion Northeastern or stun George Mason, the conference’s most talented team. Despite the downfall over the last seven years, fans here remain hungry for a winner. UNCW’s average home attendance of 3,146 makes Trask Coliseum seem empty compared to the program’s title days, yet still ranked fourth in the CAA out of 11 teams. The homecoming student section contributed to the win over Northeastern.

But, out on the road, where inner strength is revealed, UNCW is a woeful 8-38 in the last three seasons.

The program is broken down on the side of the road. A series of bad decisions over the last seven years put it here. In these coming weeks, university administration must also take a thorough look inward and make certain it’s doing everything possible from a funding, scheduling and admissions perspective to give the program the best opportunity to be successful.

A program and the people who support it can only take so much. Returning to the conference tournament next year is fine; sending a team folks can feel good about is necessary.

Reader comments posted to this article may be published in our print edition. All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published
without permission. Links are encouraged.

Together almost every day since September, members of the UNCW men’s basketball program headed their own way after the team returned home from Philadelphia on this past Sunday.

Most players went home to see their families. Some were off to spring break destinations. Coach Buzz Peterson and his assistants headed out recruiting, searching for someone, somewhere, who can help his team win more games than it loses next season.

The last, and most painful, bite from the Seahawks’ postseason ban occurs Saturday, when seven CAA teams begin fighting for the championship. It’s the most wide-open tournament in recent history. Despite a historically bad year for the conference, one of those teams will emerge, climb the ladder and clip the nets Monday night to secure one of 68 precious spots in the NCAA Tournament field.

UNCW can only watch the bracket unfold, and point to next year yet again.

Déjà vu all over again

Around this time last year, the Seahawks learned they had a strange season ahead, one without a single tournament game. Three Seahawks left the program, and Peterson felt good about the ones who returned. Throughout the preseason he described this team as mature and cohesive.

Improvement was the only reasonable expectation. But in a 10-20 season, there wasn’t any tangible improvement. The Seahawks lost 8 of their last 10 games and, while four starters return next season, none scare opposing coaches.

Those dim fortunes leave Peterson’s future with the program unclear, although he has three years remaining on a contract that pays him $430,000 annually.

“The chancellor and I are thoroughly evaluating every phase of the men’s basketball program right now,” athletic director Jimmy Bass said Tuesday. “We will proceed thoroughly and quickly.”

Those decisions won’t be made before next week.

In the meantime, Peterson knows his backcourt needs a boost. He has two scholarships available and, in a college basketball world driven by guards, must find players who can handle the ball, score and defend consistently against CAA competition.

“When I look at this league and basketball period,” Peterson said Saturday night, “we need to get somebody who can create for himself and others on our team.”

If those comments sound familiar, it’s because they are.

Peterson thought he upgraded his backcourt last offseason with junior college transfer Chris Dixon and graduate student Tyree Graham. Dixon played well most of the conference season, but was inconsistent and ended the season with a 1-for-12 clunker in the 16-point loss at Drexel. Graham, his body ravaged by injuries, never got into adequate physical condition to help the Seahawks, and did not play in the last 10 games.

Peterson emphasized defense this season. The defense got worse. UNCW plummeted to 296th nationally in adjusted efficiency. By comparison, three of Brad Brownell’s four UNCW teams finished top 50 in that category. In CAA games, the Seahawks ranked last in scoring defense (72.2 points per game), field goal percentage defense (45.7) and next-to-last in points allowed per possession (1.09).

If Peterson remains as coach, he must borrow a page from college football coaches and hire a defensive coordinator, someone who can implement the correct schemes and drill in the toughness required to execute them.

Instilling that toughness is the last piece. The UNCW roster is filled with pleasant young men, the type you want your daughter to date or marry. But what’s missing is the insatiable thirst to win, the run-through-a-brick-wall-mentality seen this season at Trask Coliseum from Towson’s Jerrelle Benimon or James Madison’s Devon Moore.

If basketball is a player’s best avenue to a better life, he’s apt to treat each possession accordingly, as if his future depends on it.

After last season, Peterson mentioned wanting to put his his players through military-style training, something that’s become an integral part of offseason conditioning regimes at places like VCU and Northeastern. He wanted the Seahawks m to push themselves under the hot sun in an open field, learn the value of teamwork and discover just how far they could go when their tank was on empty.

It never came to fruition. And the Seahawks stayed soft.

How to leave the past

So, after losing at least 18 games in six of the last seven seasons, the program is now planted in the wasteland of college basketball, buried near the bottom of all the rankings, floundering without a concrete identity or style of play.

At home, buoyed by their home crowd, the Seahawks can surprise regular-season champion Northeastern or stun George Mason, the conference’s most talented team. Despite the downfall over the last seven years, fans here remain hungry for a winner. UNCW’s average home attendance of 3,146 makes Trask Coliseum seem empty compared to the program’s title days, yet still ranked fourth in the CAA out of 11 teams. The homecoming student section contributed to the win over Northeastern.

But, out on the road, where inner strength is revealed, UNCW is a woeful 8-38 in the last three seasons.

The program is broken down on the side of the road. A series of bad decisions over the last seven years put it here. In these coming weeks, university administration must also take a thorough look inward and make certain it’s doing everything possible from a funding, scheduling and admissions perspective to give the program the best opportunity to be successful.

A program and the people who support it can only take so much. Returning to the conference tournament next year is fine; sending a team folks can feel good about is necessary.